Lot 100: Graham Fletcher Tar Baby screenprint title

Graham Fletcher Tar Baby screenprint title inscribed, signed and dated 2003 700mm x 500mm A practicing artist since the late 1990s, Fletcher has created a substantial body of work- implicit, is the influence of his Samoan heritage. He embraces the fact that his work is embedded in a Samoan cultural context. Past series have referenced themes of European exploration and the colonisation of the Pacific, to Polynesian migration to New Zealand and its larger (localised) consequences of poverty and poor housing. Clearly, in Fletcher's work, he shows a fascination with colour and graphic imagery, which embraces much of his previous series of work. This is especially true for 'Tar Baby', as the explosion of colour rises from the surface- orange, yellow- buoyant and fresh. The subject is subverted by abstraction and subtle elements of symbolism. The audience is momentarily seduced. Beneath the surface, the stylistic quality continues as a graphic surface- a layer of pink - adds depth and movement. This textured surface is informed by Fletcher's 'The Need Fire Series' (2003). European ornaments (wallpaper patterns, paisley swirls and fleurs-de-lis), were added to saturated coloured surfaces and silhouetted figures for 'decorative' effects. Fletcher creates a binary between Pacific and European, decorative and formal, abstraction and imagery on a clean, yet raw surface. Graham Fletcher is represented by Anna Bibby, Auckland and Brooke Gifford, Christchurch. LH